Military mystery set in Austria, 1809, during the Napoleonic wars. A wolf hunt - with a wolf hunting you back.

Young lieutenant Lukas Relmyer is back at the place where he and his friend Franz were kidnapped and put into the cellar in order to get weak - to be an easy target for a murderer. Lukas escaped, Franz had not. But Lukas is not an adolescent he was 4 years ago anymore, now he is a renowned duellist charged for hunting the abductor and making him pay for the Franz's death. But the murderer is smart - he is killing only young orphans, whom nobody is caring for. Fortunately Lukas and his sworn "sister" from the orphanage Luisa has found the right helper - Captain Quentin Margont, who is a kind man and idealist enough to put his everything to stop the killings.

I was happy to know Quentin Margont better here in this book. Author concentrates on him and his story more - and he is worth to know him better. Quentin is an unusual hero, a man idealistic enough to go a mile more for his friends or just for justice, thinking in the take-charge world and dreaming for the better future for all. But he is not a naive boy, he knows exactly which times he is living on and this saddens him. But he is still willing to help - exactly a person you wish to have amongst your friends.
But while the author is doing him justice, I feel he is not doing the same to his friends (except his energetic sidekick Levine), as they feels as caricatures.
Lukas Relmyer is having an interesting character arc, but somehow I feel that his author doesn't like him - as I can't connect with him, too. Which is sad, because he is the proverbial boy who has survived - which itself is a hard fate, but which makes an interesting hero.

I am happy to report that there is a less war descriptions that in the previous novel, as I am no fan of the military operations and their reviving. But this might be interesting for men or fans of this time period!

And finally, the mystery - well, most of the book I was hooked. The killer is a man who definitely must be hunted. And during the war times this is precisely what is hard to do - our sleuths have a military service to do, they are on the enemy's soil and the kidnapper is definitely one of their Austrian adversaries. How to find him?
But the abrupt ending has somehow spoilt all the good sleuthing I experienced with the heroes.

But still, the author succeed in hooking my imagination - I was there with Quentin and the posse, amongst the fightings, in the caffes, on a hunt. Just to accomplish this means that the author is a skilled writer. And there is not much skilled writers!
And precisely because of that and my feeling of companionship with Quentin Margont I will be a good soldier and follow him on his next adventures. To arms!